Marked for Owami Dlamini
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jul 2027
César Horst was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at US Bougouba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Píriz is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad19 Jul 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Owami Dlamini's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces21 Jun 2027
US Bougouba sell a favourite for $250.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Njabulo Nzimande was one of the reasons people came, and $250.0K does not replace that by itself.
Squad21 Jun 2027
César Horst was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market21 Jun 2027
Binga pay $250.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at US Bougouba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Píriz is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdulrazaq Shuaibu, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Owami Dlamini's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 May 2027
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. US Bougouba lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad17 May 2027
César Horst in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at US Bougouba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 May 2027
Sebastián Píriz falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Nov 2026
The small margins put US Bougouba out
Out, 1‑3 to AS Bakaridjan, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 8 of the 23 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Match7 Nov 2026
4 matches without a win for US Bougouba
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around US Bougouba are no longer polite ones.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at US Bougouba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Owami Dlamini lets one through his hands
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Kabelo Nkgwesa falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match7 Nov 2026
Point won or two lost for US Bougouba?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Onze Createurs? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Owami Dlamini would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Owami Dlamini is living that version at US Bougouba, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and US Bougouba did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mamoutou Berthé has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Owami Dlamini and US Bougouba agree another 3 years.
Squad17 Aug 2026
César Horst in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at US Bougouba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.